Printing presses



April 30, 1963 L. HARDING PRINTING PRESSES 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 24, 1962 ATTORNEYS April 30, 1963 L-.. HARDING PRINTING PRESSES 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 24, 1962 TTORNE S INVENTOR W% April 30, 1963 HARDING PRINTING PRESSES 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan. 24, 1962 y ATTORN YS BY7; m

April 30, 1963 Filed Jan. 24, 1962 L. HARDING PRINTING PRESSES 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 FIG. 6

INVENTOR 713w W J ATTORNEYS United States atent O 3,087,422 PRINTING PRESSES Leonard Harding, Gladstone Road, Croydon, Surrey, England Filed Jan. 24, 1962, Ser. No. 168,488 6 Claims. (Cl. 101-269) This invention relates to printing presses and has for an object to provide an improved construction applicable to a printers proofing press employing an impression cylinder and inking rollers mounted in a carriage movable along a bed in which the impression cylinder and the inking rollers can be set simultaneously at a certain vertical position to suit the height of a form resting on the bed while the impression cylinder and the inking rollers can be additionally raised and lowered without altering their vertical settings so that the cylinder is raised when the inking rollers are lowered and vice versa to permit inking of the form to take place without transferring ink to the cylinder and to permit the cylinder to press a sheet of paper against the form without causing the back of the sheet of paper to be inked.

According to the invention the impression cylinder is rotatably mounted on the center portion of a shaft having end portions which are eccentric to the axis of the center portion and which are mounted in cylindrical bushings supported in the carriage, these bushings being themselves eccentric to the axis of the eccentric ends of the shaft, rollers engaging runways on the bed of the machine supporting the carriage, the inking rollers being carried by a frame mounted on the eccentric ends of stub shafts which are themselves mounted in eccentric bushings in the carriage, the eccentric bushings support ing the cylinder and supporting the inking roller frame being coupled to one another and to means for rotating the bushings simultaneously, and the stub shafts and the eccentric end portions of the cylinder shaft being coupled to one another and tomeans for rotating simultaneously the stub shafts and the eccentric end portions of the cylinder shaft.

A practical embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the printing press, FIG. 2 is a half plan view of the press, FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the carriage with the parts in the positions for inking the form and the printing cylinder raised, FIG. 4 is a similar view of the carriage to that of FIG. 3, showing the parts in the position in which the printing cylinder is lowered for pressing a sheet of paper on the inked form and the inking rollers are raised to avoid inking the back of the paper, FIG. 5 is a section through the line 5-5 in FIG. 3 and FIG. '6 is a section through the line 6-6 in FIG. 3, FIGS. 5 and 6 being drawn to a smaller scale than that of FIG. 3.

In the drawings, 1 denotes an impression cylinder mounted on the center portion of a cylinder shaft 13 the end portions 13a of which are reduced in diameter and are eccentric with respect to the axis of the center portion. The end portions 13a are supported in bushings 3 which are themselves eccentric with respect to the axes of the end portions 13a and are mounted in a carriage 22 which provides a support for the cylinder 1. 23 denotes rollers mounted on the bushings 3, the rollers 23 being movable along runways 24 presented by the bed of the press. 2 denotes a handwheel fixed to one of the eccentric end portions 13a. 7 denotes a locking pin penetrating a circumferential slot in the handwheel 2, the inner end of the pin engaging a vertical slot 7a in the carriage 22. 5 denotes levers fixed to the bushings 3 and connected to one another by a bar 50. The arms 5 swing in an are determined by stops 6 engaging in an 3,087,422 Patented Apr. 30, 1963 arcuate slot in each of the arms 5 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

To operate the inking rollers 26 there are provided at each side of the carriage 22 two stub shafts 8 each formed with an eccentric portion 9 at one end. A lever arm 8a is fastened to each stub shaft 8. A link 10 connects the lever arm-s 8a to one another and a link 11 connects the lever arms 8a to a lever 12 fixed to the adjacent eccentric end portion 13a of the shaft 13. The link 11 is connected to the lever 12 by a pin 12a which penetrates a circumferential slot in the handwheel 2 and carries a locking nut so that the handwheel 2 can be locked to the lever 12. A small adjustment can be made in the angular relationship of the handwheel 2 and the lever 12 by moving the pin 12a along the circumferential slot in the handwheel 2 to a desired position before tightening the nut. This adjustment is provided to permit the calibrations on the handwheel 2 to be correctly.

set in relation to an index mark on the head of the bolt 7 or on a surface lying level with the periphery of the handwheel 2. The stub shafts 8 are set in the positions in which the eccentric portions 9 are in the same angular position so that rotation of the eccentric end portion 13a by the handwheel 2 causes the stub shafts 8 to be rotated also. The inking rollers 26 are mounted between cheek plates 25 formed with horizontal recesses- 14a in each of which is slidable a yoke 14 mounted on the eccentric end 9 of an associated stub shaft 8. A vertical slot 15 in the center of each cheek plate 25 is fitted with a yoke 16 and is supported by a bolt 17 which passes through a hole in the carriage 22 and is screwed into a stay bar (not shown) which carries inking rollers 26 resting on the runways 24. The stub shafts 8 are mounted in eccentric bushings 18 rotatable in the carriage 22. The bushings 18 on each side of the carriage 22 are attached to lever arms 18a which are joined by a link 19 furnished with a pin engaging a slot 19a in the lever 5. A lug 20 at the end of the lever 5 operates the opening and closing of paper grippers 21 located at one end of the bed of the press.

In practice, the height of the cylinder .1 and of the inking rollers 26 with respect to a form resting on the bed of the machine is adjusted by loosening the pin -7 and rotating the 'handwheel 2 to a desired position as indicated by the calibrations on the periphery of the handwheel 2. As the handwheel 2 rotates the eccentric end portions 13a of the shaft 13 also rotate about their own axes and cause the center portion of the shaft 13 to perform an orbiting motion. The cylinder 1 mounted on the center portion of the shaft 1 3 thus also performs an orbiting motion and rises or drops relatively to the bed of the machine .and thus to a form resting on the bed. Rotation of the handwheel 2 also causes the arm 12 to swing and to communicate swinging mot-ion by way of the link 11 and the link 10 to the stub shafts 8 thus causing them to perform .a partial rotation. As. the shafts 8 rotate the eccentric portions 9 perform orbiting motions and rise or fall relatively to the carriage 22. Such rising or falling motion is communicated to the yokes 14 .and thus to the cheek plates 25. As the inking rollers are carried by the cheek plates 25 the inking rollers 26 also rise or fall. The eccentric end portions 13a of the shaft 13 and the eccentric portions 9 of the stub shafts 8 are so 'angularly positioned relative to one another that the cylinder 1 and the cheek plates 25 rise simultaneously or drop simultaneously. The handwheel 2 is locked by tightening the pin 7.

In the action of printing the form must first be inked and FIG. 3 illustrates the carriage with the parts in the position ready to begin the inking stroke. In commencing the inking stroke a force is applied to the bar 5a and thus 3 to the levers 5 to cause them to swing in a counter-clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 3. This swinging movement causes the eccentric bushings 3 to rotate and the eccentric end portions 13a mounted in the bushings 3 are caused to perform an orbital motion which results in the eccentric end portions 13a being raised with respect to the carriage 22. The shaft 13 and the impression cylinder mounted thereon thus also are raised to a position in which they are clear of the form. As the levers 5 swing the links 1-9 move with them and cause the arms v18a also to move in counter-clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 3. The eccentric bushings 18 attached to the arms 18a are also rotated and cause the stub shafts 8 to perform an orbital movement in a downward direction. The check plates 25 suspended from the stub shafts 8 thus also move downwardly-carrying with them theinking rollers 26 to the position to ink the form. Further force applied to the bar -5acauses-the carriage 22 to move along the runways 24 supported on the rollers 23 and 26. When the form is inked a sheet of paper is fed by means of a feedboard into the grippers 21 which have been previously opened by the lug-' on the lever 5 and a force is now ap plied in the opposite direction/to the bar 5a. Before the carriage 22 commences to move in the opposite direction the levers '5 swing in a clockwise direction as illustrated in FIG. 3 to the position shown in FIG. 4. The grippers 21 close and the 'eccentricbushes 3 are rotated now in the opposite direction so that the orbital movement performed by the eccentric end portions 13a of the shaft 13 is now downwards thus bringing the cylinder l1 into the position to press the sheet of paper held by the grippers 21 above the inked form against the form. The swinging movements of the levers 5 communicated by -way of the links 19 to the lever arms 18:: cause the eccentric bushings 18 to rotate in the opposite direction and produce an orbital movement in the stub shafts 8. The direction of this orbital movement is now upwards so that the cheek plates 25 with their attached inking rollers v26 are raised thus raising the inking rollers above the form to avoid inking the back of the paper. Continued force applied to the bar 5a causes the carriage to move now in the reverse direction, the lowered cylinder 1 pressing the paper against the form and the inking rollers passing above and clear of the sheet of paper thus avoiding inking the back of the paper.

What is claimed is:

1'. A printing press consisting of a press bed presenting supporting the carriage, eccentric bushings rotatably mounted in the carriage, a cylinder shaft having a center portion and end portions eccentric with respect to the center portion, said eccentric end portions being engaged with two of said eccentric bushings, an impression cylinder rotatably mounted on the center portion of said shaft, stub shafts engaged with the other eccentric bushings, each stub shaft being formed with an eccentric portion, cheek plates supported on the eccentric portions of said stub shafts, inking rollers supported by said check plates, means attached to and coupling all the bushings for rotating all the bushings simultaneously in the direction to cause the inking rollers and the cylinder to move in opposite vertical directions, .and means attached to and coupling the stub shafts and the eccentric end portions of the cylinder shaft for rotating said stub shafts and the end portions of the cylinder shaft simultaneously in the eccentric bushings in the direction to cause the inking rollers and the cylinder to move in the same vertical direction.

2. A printing press as claimed in claim 1 in which the eccentric bushings supporting the cylinder shaft each carry .a roller supporting the carriage.

3. A printing press as claimed in claim 1 in which the cheek plates are formed with horizontal slots, yokes are slidable in the slots, and the eccentric portions of the stub shafts are engaged with the yokes.

4. A printing pressvas claimed in claim 1 in which the means for rotating the bushings consists of levers attached to the bushings and links coupling the levers.

5. A printing press as claimed in claim 1 in which the means for rotating the stub shafts and the eccentric end portions of the cylinder shaft consists of levers attached to said stubushafts and said eccentric end portions, links coupling the levers, and a handwheel fixed to one of said eccentric end portions.

6. A printing press as claimed in claim 5 in which a locking pin penetrating a circumferential slot in the handwheel is engaged with a slot in the carriage and is lockable to the handwheel to hold the handwh'eel in a desired angular position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. A PRINTING PRESS CONSISTING OF A PRESS BED PRESENTING RUNWAYS, A CARRIAGE, ROLLERS ENGAGING THE RUNWAYS AND SUPPORTING THE CARRIAGE, ECCENTRIC BUSHINGS ROTATABLY MOUNTED IN THE CARRIAGE, A CYLINDER SHAFT HAVING A CENTER PORTION AND END PORTIONS ECCENTRIC WITH RESPECT TO THE CENTER PORTION, SAID ECCENTRIC END PORTIONS BEING ENGAGED WITH TWO OF SAID ECCENTRIC BUSHINGS, AN IMPRESSION CYLINDER ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON THE CENTER PORTION OF SAID SHAFT, STUB SHAFTS ENGAGED WITH THE OTHER ECCENTRIC BUSHINGS, EACH STUB SHAFT BEING FORMED WITH AN ECCENTRIC PORTION, CHEEK PLATES SUPPORTED ON THE ECCENTRIC PORTIONS OF SAID STUB SHAFTS, INKING ROLLERS SUPPORTED BY SAID CHEEK PLATES, MEANS ATTACHED TO AND COUPLING ALL THE BUSHINGS FOR ROTATING ALL THE BUSHINGS SIMULTANEOUSLY IN THE DIRECTION TO CAUSE THE INKING ROLLERS AND THE CYLINDER TO MOVE IN OPPOSITE VERTICAL DIRECTIONS, AND MEANS ATTACHED TO AND COUPLING THE STUB SHAFTS AND THE ECCENTRIC END PORTIONS OF THE CYLINDER SHAFT FOR ROTATING SAID STUB SHAFTS AND THE END PORTIONS OF THE CYLINDER SHAFT SIMULTANEOUSLY IN THE ECCENTRIC BUSHINGS IN THE DIRECTION TO CAUSE THE INKING ROLLERS AND THE CYLINDER TO MOVE IN THE SAME VERTICAL DIRECTION. 